Top economists: Time to raise the minimum wage

It’s been three years, as of Tuesday, since Congress last raised the federal minimum wage. And many advocates for the poor say that with low-wage workers struggling, it’s time to do it again.

A group of prominent liberal-leaning economists including Joseph Stiglitz, Jeffrey Sachs, Laura Tyson, and Robert Reich sent a letter Monday to congressional leaders urging them to raise the minimum wage from its current level of $7.25 per hour to $9.80 by 2014. “At a time when persistent high unemployment is putting enormous downward pressure on wages, such a minimum wage increase would provide a much-needed boost to the earnings of low-wage workers,” the group wrote.